The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-11-05
General Convention.
MISSION WORK AND THE CHRIS
TAN LIFE.
BY REV. A. A. MINER, d. d.

IAN address at the General Convention, New
York, Thursday evening, Oct. 20.1
When God created this world he be-
gan the preparation Of the elements OF
the grandest missionary work that ever
entered into the imagination of man.
Darkness may have been upon the face
of the deep, all may have been chaos.
but when the waters receded there grew
up reeds and rushes and grasses AID
trees to absorb the miasma and malaria
and poisonous gases. Every bush and
tree was missionary in the hand of
God, whose thought ran from the first
moment of time to the final consumma-
ton of all things. There followed the
Saurian and reptilian age. And when
this world had been prepared for the
higher races of animals and for man,
you and or the like of us were sent
into the world to subdue the earth, to
tame the animals, to give them names,
and to prove ourselves missionaries in
advancing the world to higher stage
of preparation for human comfort. Ii
we had not been SO brutal ourselves we
should not have had so many brutes in
the forests and in the mountain fast
nesses. And if the Christian church
were more Christian to-day, we should
have fewer foul spots on the face Of it;
we should have more churches and
fewer prisons; fewer ruined men and
fewer dramshops to ruin them.
When God sent men into the world
he sent every one with mission and
as a missionary. 1t is not every one
who is appointed by God to work in the
high places, but all are to work in some
place. There is some field of work and
action for each one Of us. And every
man who makes an added blade Of
grass to grow, or who produces an added
ear of corn, or extends his vineyard and
confers comfort upon man through the
luscious grape, is missionary serving
Gods purpose in moving forward hui
mainly, uplifting mans interests and
shedding light upon this world below.
Man must be cooperative in working
out his own salvation. God stoops
down to man and guides him from the
first step to the final contamination OF
his life. 1 need not tell you that all
work which is done in the spirit of love
for God and man is Christian and mis-
sionary work.
Consider the life of John Frederick
Oberlin, young man of rare ability,
just out of college, who cast in his lot
with those poor people in the little viii
lage of Waldbeck on the borders of
France and Germany. See him there
discussing no theology, laying down no
profound principle of philosophy, but
taking his pickaxe in his hand and
leading his neighbors on to the con-
struction of better roads, that they
might pass more easily from one prov
ince to another; urging his neighbors
to send their sons to distant schools to
learn the mechanic arts that they might
be better trained for the duties of life;
with his own hands tilling the soil and
planting rare fruit trees, only to be
laughed at by his neighbors for his
pains. But when he proffered them
baskets of the luscious fruit, their
sneers were turned to gratitude and
they copied his example. So he toiled
until he had won all their hearts. He
was greatly loved by those about him
when they came to know what he was,
what his love and toll meant, and what
it all signified. They were drawn unto
him and through him unto the God who
made them. When that coed man
died, though the heavens were opened
and the rain descended in torrents, he
was followed to his grave by process
sion three miles in length. This was
missionary work. This was Christian
missionary work. 1t is this kind or
work and intelligent love that draws
all souls unto God. 1t makes all man.
kind brothers and in truth one great
family. There is not black man on
the face of the earth, not misguided
member of our modern society, cast
down, marred, and SCARED though he
may be, that is not your brother and
my brother; and we are each an instru-
ment in the hands of God to work out
his salvation.
God sent his only begotten Son for
our redemption. From the beginning
to the end it is God working in and
through him, and in and through the
cooperation of man, never throwing
the reins of the wild steed to the wind.
Never withd awning from this universe
of his, but ever maintaining his guard
ianship over 1t, to guide men to higher
and higher and still nobler achieve
ments. For this he sent into the world
Jesus Christ to make himself more fully
known. He sent Jesus Christ to be an
object lesson to the world that his divine
truths might be accepted through his
love of and association with men. Mark
his tenderness to the humble, mark his
compassion for the needy everywhere;
mark his condemnation of the scribe